Magnetic field-assisted finishing for micropore X-ray focusing mirrors fabricated by deep reactive ion etching

Abstract

A magnetic field-assisted finishing process has been studied for high-aspect-ratio ion-etched silicon curvilinear micropore structures, which have potential application as mirrors for satellite-borne X-ray telescopes. The micropore sidewalls act as X-ray focusing mirrors, and lead to reductions in the mass-to-effective-area ratio of 10–1000 times, compared to traditional X-ray telescopes. This paper describes the processing principle for the surface finishing of the sidewalls of micropore structures (10, 20 μm and depth: 300 μm (aspect ratio ≈ 15, 30)), and the feasibility of achieving roughness ∼4 nm rms and improving the X-ray reflectivity of micropore sidewall surface are demonstrated.